Creating Influence and Trust in a Place of Uncertainty

Administrator

Posted on 3.22.2010

Many marketing
professionals believe
that, because the
Internet is a new
medium, new rules
and techniques must
be invented. They are
mistaken. Many
timeless principles
apply to online
marketing but have
largely been ignored.

Dr. Robert Cialdini, president of
Influence At Work (InfluenceAt-
Work.com), is regarded as the
world’s highest authority on persuasion
and influence. His books
have sold millions of copies, and
some of his most important findings
are entirely applicable to the
online marketing environment.

What Cialdini was able to
formulate through his work are
several principles of universal
persuasion that operate across
all cultures and circumstances.
You can think of these as automatic
compliance mechanisms
that, once set into motion, are
very difficult to resist.

According to Dr. Cialdini, the six universal principles of
persuasion are:

Reciprocation — People tend to return a favor. Give to get:
small unsolicited gifts results in outsized return obligation
being placed on the receiver.

Scarcity — If I can’t have it, I want it. Perceived scarcity will
generate more demand.

Authority— If an expert says it, it must be true. People tend
to obey authority figures, or even just those with the trappings
of authority.

Consistency — If people publicly take even a small stand on
an idea or goal, they are more likely to honor that commitment.
They will get behind their stated beliefs with action.

Consensus — People will look for “social proof” of the similarities
of others’ actions under the same circumstances.

Liking — People are easily persuaded by people they like
and are attracted to.

Some of these principles are especially important under
conditions of uncertainty, which should be of particular interest
to Internet marketers. The Internet is a sweeping, everchanging
communications network that creates uncertainty in
its wake.

AuthorityWhen people are uncertain, they don’t look inside of
themselves. They look outside, to the counsel of
legitimate experts. — Robert Cialdini

Authority and expertise must be established before you
ask someone to act. Otherwise, you become a blowhard and
self-promoter. You can either borrow authority from others,
or present them with your expertise.

In order to be credible, you must demonstrate knowledge
and trustworthiness. No one can beat you as a communicator
if you have these two elements. That means that you must
present information in an unbiased way.

But how do you establish trust if there is no time to build
trustworthy interactions? How do you produce instant credibility?
There is a very good method for doing just that.

Before the most compelling portion of your argument,
mention the weakness and drawbacks of your
product or service. — Robert Cialdini

You read that correctly — accentuate the negative.

Using this tactic because it:

1) Shows your knowledge of both the pros and cons of a
particular product or service, and

2) Establishes your trustworthiness, because you are willing
to show the negative.

Unlike most online marketers, don’t wait until the end of
your pitch, press release or blog post to mention your weakness.
State it early. Otherwise, your strongest argument is
“bouncing off of walls of disbelief.”

In both of these examples, a negative is mentioned upfront,
but used to ultimately accentuate the positive. In Avis’
case, their number two ranking in the industry is forcing
them to focus on serving the customer better. Loreal is
going to cost you, but they only want to deliver the best to
the consumer.

Research from psycholinguistics indicates that for practical
purposes “but” means “take the info I just told you
and put it away; focus instead on what I am going to tell
you next.”

Just change the sequence of the words you use, and multiply
your profits.

Consensus

When people are uncertain, they don’t look inside of
themselves. They look outside, to the counsel of
legitimate experts.— Robert Cialdini

We see it all the time — your role models are your peers.
Much to the chagrin of many parents, the biggest influence
on most teenagers is their circle of close friends. It almost
doesn’t matter what your tribes are, and all of us informally
belong to many. BMW owners, iPhone users and Burning Man
devotees are much more likely to tune in to the behavior of
like-minded people.

Two important aspects of such “social proof” are especially
important:

• The Many others
• Comparable others

The Many implies that something is a “hit” or leader in
your specific community or tribe. Once trends take off, the
momentum of the leaders makes them very hard to overtake.
Any objective evidence of leadership within a particular tribe
or subgroup is very important.

Comparability is a sense of how similar someone is to oneself.
For example, I will not be influenced nearly as much by
the actions of others with whom I do not identify. So, the closer
the marketing is aligned with my specific circumstances and
relationships, the better.

In a landmark study, Dr. Cialdini changed the messaging
on hotel bathroom signs, across three different price points
ranging from inexpensive to luxury brands. The signs asked
guests to hang up their towels after use if they did not want
them washed, and to leave them on the floor if they wanted
fresh towels.

Each request was identical, except for the type of messaging
used in the headline.

• “Recycle and do it for environment” — this was the standard
control and resulted in 38-percent compliance from guests.
This was followed by one of the following two headlines.

• “Cooperate and join us” — this resulted in a lower, 36-percent
compliance because it was perceived as a self-serving request
on the part of the hotel to save on operating expenses.
You can’t claim partnership, you must earn partnership.

• “The majority of guests are reusing towels at least once
during their stay” — this appeal to The Many portion of
the consensus principle resulted in a much-improved 46-
percent compliance score.

But how do you create a sense of comparability in this setting,
when anonymous and random people stay at the hotel?
What possible kinship of comparability can there be among
them to further turbo-charge results? As it turns out, even a tenuous
kind of kinship is enough. The next headline tested was:

• “The majority of people who stayed in this room are reusing
towels at least once during their stay” — this combination
of The Many with Comparable resulted in a stunning 54-
percent compliance rate.

The use of appropriate testimonials is critical. And the testimonials
should not come just from experts but also from
peers. They should also change in order depending on the target
audience. Lead with the most comparable circumstances.

The Internet is a place of uncertainty for many people. It
evolves quickly, and often the sheer number of choices
can be overwhelming. Create authority and trust in this environment
and you will be able to influence action — under
any circumstances.

About the Author:
Tim Ash is the CEO of SiteTuners.com, a landing page optimization firm that offers conversion consulting, full-service guaranteed-improvement tests, and software tools to improve conversion. He is the chairperson of ConversionConference.com and a frequent speaker at top Internet marketing conferences. Tim is the author of the bestselling book Landing Page Optimization.